Hume Township residents air grievances about local company

Kelly Jerome, Tribune Editor

Published 8:00 pm, Thursday, April 23, 2009

HUMETOWNSHIP— There wasn’t a lot of elbow room at the Hume Township Hall Monday night as more than 30 residents packed in for a meeting that included a discussion about Weaver Road and a local excavating company.

During last month’s board meeting, the board decided to plan the discussion to address resident complaints regarding work being done by Gene Clancy & Sons, Inc. While residents were given a chance to air their grievances, the board did not plan to take action on the matter during the meeting.

The company is owned by Gene Clancy, who attended the meeting with his sons, Doug and Todd Clancy. It is excavating approximately 40 acres within the township with plans for future development. Residents who live near the property are concerned with the noise of the operation and the dust created when the Clancys’ trucks travel local roads, particularly Weaver Road, which is gravel.

Before the discussion began, Hume Township Supervisor Jim Roland warned the crowd to “keep it cordial.” He said each person would get a chance to speak, but residents should direct comments to the board rather than each other to keep the discussion from getting out of hand.

“We’ll give you one warning, then we’ll have to adjourn,” Roland said.

During the discussion, a few residents questioned whether the Clancys have a permit for the work they are doing.

“They have the right to be on the road, but if they’re going to run a business in a residential area, I feel they should follow permits,” said Bob Goodchild, who lives on Weaver Road.

Lundberg responded that the Clancys do have the permits they need to remove sand from their property with the intent of future development. He said the company is required to keep a soil erosion permit, which is renewed every year, and the Clancys are in compliance.

Todd Clancy said the company is required to keep the area of disturbed land under 5 acres, and after the Clancys remove sand and level the land, they are restoring the topsoil and planting trees.

Lundberg also said Clancys have recently cleaned up the excavation area.

“I know it’s improved from what it was a month ago. I know it’s vastly improved from what it was last fall,” he said.

Hentschl said the Clancys have also made improvements to Weaver Road by removing some trees in the right of way, although some residents expressed fear that too many trees will be removed.

Todd Clancy said the company isn’t planning to remove more trees than necessary.

“We just want to use common sense. We aren’t after the whole right-of-way,” he said.

While some residents inquired about the possibility of paving the road, Hentschl said it’s not currently possible. It would be too expensive, there would be drainage problems and it would be too difficult to widen the road enough, he said.

“Literally, there will be people there who are put out of their home,” he said. “You just can’t pave what’s there.”

Hentschl also responded to resident complaints about the Clancys using the roads for eight to 10 hours a day in the summer.

“They can run whenever they want to. It’s considered a public road,” he said.

Todd Clancy said despite the company’s ability to use the roads at all hours, the Clancys limit the hours out of consideration for residents.

In other business:

• Roland read a letter from the County Road Commission that said M-25 will be widened between the east end of Caseville and the west end of Port Austin. The road will be extended 8 feet on both sides to create a walking trail, and some mailboxes will be affected.

• The board voted to hire Thumb Industries, Inc. to do yard work for the township at $40 per hour.

• Accepted a bid from Kinde Lumber for ceiling tiles for the township hall. Roland said approximately 560 square feet will be purchased at a cost of $1 per square foot. The board also passed a motion to advertise for a contractor to install the tiles.

• During the supervisor’s comment portion of the meeting, Roland briefly discussed the possibility of wind turbines being erected in the township. “Educate yourselves,” he suggested. “It’s coming. We’ve had some residents in the township who have been approached.”

• The board discussed the possibility of splitting fire service in the township between the Port Austin and Kinde fire departments. The move is not a possibility for this year, but the board could consider it for the future.

• Read two bids received by the township for grass cutting. The decision to hire was postponed until the May township board meeting.

• Approved double sweep brining of Weaver Road, Sand Road (east of Oak Beach) and Stiebe Road. The brining will occur once before Memorial Day, once before Labor Day and as needed.

• Planned to call a special meeting at 7 p.m. April 29 to evaluate the contract of the township assessor, Valerie McCallum.